Reform, standards and teacher identity: Challenges of sustaining commitment

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Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 563–577

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Reform, standards and teacher identity: Challenges ofsustaining commitment

Christopher Daya,�, Bob Elliotb, Alison Kingtona

aUniversity of Nottingham, UKbQueensland University of Technology, Australia

Abstract

Teacher commitment has been found to be a critical predictor of teachers’ work performance, absenteeism, retention,

burnout and turnover, as well as having an important influence on students’ motivation, achievement, attitudes towards

learning and being at school (Firestone (1996). Educational Administration Quarterly, 32(2), 209–235; Graham (1996).

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 67(1), 45–47; Louis (1998). School Effectiveness and School

Improvement, 9(1), 1–27; Tsui & Cheng (1999). Educational Research and Evaluation, 5(3), 249–268). It is also a

necessary ingredient to the successful implementation, adaptation or resistance reform agendas. Surprisingly, however,

the relationship between teachers’ motivation, efficacy, job satisfaction and commitment, and between commitment and

the quality of their work has not been the subject of extensive research. Some literature presents commitment as a

feature of being and behaving as a professional (Helsby, Knight, McCulloch, Saunders, & Warburton (1997). A report

to participants on the professional cultures of Teachers Research Project, Lancaster University, January). Others

suggest that it fluctuates according to personal, institutional and policy contexts (Louis (1998). School Effectiveness and

School Improvement, 9(1), 1–27) and identify different dimensions of commitment which interact and fluctuate (Tyree

(1996). Journal of Educational Research, 89(5), 295–304). Others claim that teachers’ commitment tends to decrease

progressively over the course of the teaching career (Fraser, Draper, & Taylor (1998). Evaluation and Research in

Education, 12 (2), 61–71; Huberman (1993). The lives of teachers. London: Cassell). In this research, experienced

teachers in England and Australia were interviewed about their understandings of commitment. The data suggest that

commitment may be better understood as a nested phenomena at the centre of which is a set of core, relatively

permanent values based upon personal beliefs, images of self, role and identity which are subject to challenge by change

which is socio-politically constructed.

r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

e front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

te.2005.03.001

ng author.

ss: [email protected] (C. Day).

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C. Day et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 563–577564

1. Background

Evidence presented at the UNESCO Interna-tional Conference on Education in 1996 suggeststhat reform policies in many countries in recentyears have led to deterioration in the workingconditions of teachers, in turn producing demor-alisation, abandonment of the profession, absen-teeism, and a negative impact on the quality ofeducation offered to students (Tedesco, 1997); andresearch throughout Europe and Scandinaviancountries also has shown the increasing levels ofteacher stress, fatigue and burnout as a result ofthe changes which have affected their work lives(Klette, 2000; Moller, 2000; Esteve, 1989; Jesus,2000). There is no doubt that external factorsexercise significant influence for better or worse:for example, the nature of the children whom theyteach, their energy levels, their health and increas-ing concerns with family matters. However, howthis phenomenon is characterised is important. Ifwe focus on the issues of stress we are in danger ofadopting a deficit model of professional practice inwhich the research endeavour is to identify what ismissing and find ways to replace what is missing.Rather, we believe that there is a need to adopt amore positive orientation to professional practiceand that a focus on teacher commitment is oneway of doing this (Firestone, 1996; Graham, 1996;Louis, 1998; Tsui & Cheng, 1999).The question of commitment in the later years

of teaching across age is significant both inEngland and Australia where the demographicspoint to an ageing population of teachers. Recentreports on teachers in both countries confirmthe ageing profile with data indicating that thelargest proportion of teachers is in the 41–55 agebracket (DETYA, 2000; DFEE, 2000). Loss ofcommitment during the course of the teachingcareer is, therefore, particularly problematic inrelation not only to retention but also theeffectiveness of experienced teachers in Englishand Australian classrooms (Fraser, Draper, &Taylor, 1998).Teachers are one of many professional public

service groups who, in the first part of the twenty-first century, report an increasing diversificationand intensification in their work. This is evidenced

in terms of increasing hours spent at the work-place, broader roles and responsibilities and short-er timelines in which to complete tasks. Thespectre of performativity in teachers’ work is partof what Aronowitz (1998) refers to as the ‘‘darktimes’’ of education. Smyth (2001) argues thatAronowitz’s term is shorthand for the growingimpositions on schools, teachers and students toensure that they contribute maximally to theeconomy of the country in which they work.Issues of centralisation and decentralisation con-tinue to dominate the educational agenda. Centralcontrol of curriculum through various forms ofassessment regimes to focus the learning agendaon basic priorities for national economic perfor-mance must be set alongside the move to establishlocal enterprising schools. Such initiatives haveresulted in a ‘‘new managerialism’’ (Smyth, 2001)and associated new managerial relationships forteachers. For teachers, this has been particularlyproblematic because they have had a primeresponsibility for teaching students in their classeswho themselves are reported to be increasinglyalienated from school-based learning and curriculawhich are perceived as largely irrelevant to interestand need (Antone, 1994).Teachers are drawn away from what they regard

as the essential part of their work of interactingwith students to deal with managerial prioritieswithin new contractual accountabilities expressed,for example, through imposed national compe-tency-based standards of school and teacherperformance. There has also been increasingpressure on teachers to consider their work contextbeyond the walls of their own classroom as themove to locally managed schools and increasedparticipation of a wider range of stakeholders incurriculum decision-making has increased de-mands on teachers to interact with other teachers,professionals and parents.In Australia, as in many other countries in

which governments have intervened in the govern-ance and curriculum of schools in order to raisestandards of teaching, learning and achieve-ment, the nature of teachers’ work has becomeincreasingly:

�
performance orientated and audit driven,

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C. Day et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005) 563–577 565

�
more directly accountable to a range ofstakeholders,
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enlarged and intensified.
In addition, the idea of teachers being appointedto positions for the whole of their professionalcareers is changing quickly. Not only do teachersmove in and out of teaching, the positions they takeare associated with short-term contracts. This isparticularly so with younger teachers (aged between21 and 30), most of who are likely to be employedon short-term contracts. It is also interesting tonote that many of such teachers in this position arefemale (DETYA, 2001). In relation to this, publiceducation systems have been concerned to addresswhat is perceived as a reduced market share ofstudents in their systems. Because there has been aperceived drift of more capable students frompublic to private systems, there is a concern thatthose who remain are seen as problematic and thatthe focus of public education will become remedial.This drift from public to private systems wasrecently a topic of concern in the New South Walesmedia. In the Sydney Morning Herald (18 March,2002) it was reported that:

Enrolments at inner-city public high schoolscontinue to tumble despite the Government’scontroversial attempts to stem the drift to theprivate system by closing seven schools. De-partment of Education figures show that year 7enrolments at 15 schools examined by thegovernment have fallen well short of expecta-tions.

Similarly, in the discussion document fromEducation Queensland (1996) concerned withredefining public education, anxiety was expressedthat ‘‘the proportion of young Queenslandersattending state schools has declined from nearly77% to just over 72.5%.’’ (p. 2).Despite working in such contexts, however,

research in Australia suggests that there remainsa significant number of teachers who display deepcommitment to their profession, dedication totheir students and innovative and co-operativeteaching practices (Crowley et al., 1998; Ground-water-Smith, Brennan, McFadden, & Mitchell,2001).

There is mounting evidence in England thatrapid changes in the external and internal condi-tions of schools and the changing nature ofteaching, similar to those articulated for theAustralian context, have produced conditions ofextreme uncertainty and identity crises withinwhat historically has been for many teachers astable profession. There is a continuing prematureloss of able, experienced teachers on grounds of ill-health (Troman & Woods, 2001). The yearsbetween 1989 and 1998 show a 43% increase(DfEE, 1998). Attrition is high in the first 10 yearsand 25 years plus (DES, 1990; Arnold, 1993).Teacher morale is reported to be at a low ebb andthis is not restricted to older teachers. Stress andburnout are high (Travers and Cooper, 1996).There is a growing number of teachers ontemporary and short-term contracts (Lawn,1995); and in many areas recruitment of newteachers is not increasing at the rate required toreplace those who are leaving. An opinion poll(Guardian, 29/2/00, p. 1) estimated that 50% ofteachers were planning to leave within 10 yearsand that of those, more than 30% of those under35 years old were expecting to leave within 10years and 46% within 15 years. (This echoes the 26country TIMSS study (1997), which reported thatone-third of England’s primary school teachersand over 40% of secondary school teacherswanted to leave teaching.) There is, therefore, aneed to conserve and enhance human resourceinvestment and effectiveness.

2. Professional identities

It has been claimed that the key to teachers’commitment is a sense of identity (Woods, 1981;Ball & Goodson, 1985); indeed, in her reflexiveaccount of research over a 20-year period with 54primary school teachers, Jennifer Nias (1989)wrote that the word ‘commitment’ appeared inalmost every interview. It was a term they used todistinguish those who are ‘caring’, ‘dedicated’ andwho ‘take the job seriously’ from those who ‘puttheir own interests first’. Some teachers derivedsatisfaction from their commitment, which becamean indicator of a sense of pride in their profes-

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sionalism, while others found the demands toogreat a burden and reported that teaching was ‘abit too absorbing’ and can ‘take over your life’(Nias, 1981). These teachers often place limits ontheir commitment as a means of continuing tosurvive the intellectual and emotional complexitiesof teaching. Tyree (1996), in a study of primaryschool teachers, reported four dimensions ofcommitment: commitment as caring, commitmentas occupational competence, commitment asidentity and commitment as career-continuance.Other researchers have found that teacher com-mitment may be enhanced or diminished byfactors such as student behaviour, collegial andadministrative support, parental demands, andnational education policies (Day, 2000; Louis,1998; Riehl & Sipple, 1996; Tsui & Cheng, 1999).Policy changes and reformist imperatives have leftmany teachers themselves feeling confused abouttheir professional identity, the extent to which theyare now able to use their discretionary judge-ment—arguably at the heart of their sense ofprofessionalism—and about their capacity to carryout the responsibilities associated with their newperformativity identities, which challenge tradi-tional notions of professionalism and professionalpurposes and practices.In England, Helsby, Knight, McCulloch, Saun-

ders, and Warburton (1997) identified that behav-ing as a professional among secondary schoolteachers involved

displayingydegrees of dedication and commit-ment, working long hours as a matter of courseand accepting the open ended nature of the taskinvolvedy(making)ythe maximum effort todo the best you possibly can and a constantquest for improved performancey(Helsby etal., 1997, pp. 9, 10).

In a different context, others (Jackson, Boos-trom, & Hansen, 1993; Goodlad, 1990; Sockett,1993) have written of the ‘moral purposes’ ofteachers, using words such as ‘courage’, ‘integrity’,‘honesty’, ‘care’, ‘fairness’; and it is easy to see howthese may be associated with commitment. Norshould we forget the more obvious signs ofcommitment such as enthusiasm for the job andthe people with whom one works. Witness, for

example, comments by an experienced head, in his50s, in a recent multi-perspective study of success-ful head teachers:

Every day’s a challengeyI’ve no wishes to doanything other than what I’m doingyOver theyears, enthusiasm seems to grow rather thanwaney(Day, Harris, Hadfield, Beresford, &Tolley, 2000, p.44).

Like this head teacher, many teachers havesomehow found ‘room to manoeuvre’ as externalreform initiatives (which have the effect of redu-cing teachers’ range of discretionary judgements)are imposed and as the bureaucracy associatedwith increased contractual accountability begins tobite. Such teachers survive and once again flourishin the most challenging circumstances, principallybecause of the strength of the values they hold(Fried, 1995; Hansen, 1995; Helsby et al., 1997;Day, 2004).There is a general agreement among researchers

that the ‘self’ is a crucial element in the wayteachers construe and construct the nature of theirwork (Kelchtermans & Vandenberghe, 1994); thatcommitment is a necessary element of profession-alism; that motivation, self-efficacy, job satisfac-tion and commitment are closely linked withidentity; and that teacher identities are the resultof an interaction between personal experiences,and ‘the social, cultural and institutional environ-ment in which they function on a daily basis’ (vanden Berg, 2002, p 579). However, the nature of‘self’ is contested (Day, Stobart, Kington &Sammons, 2003). For example, whilst Nias(1989), Kelchtermans (1993) and Beijaard (1995)have found through their empirical studies thatidentities are closely bound with personal andprofessional values, and that they change accord-ing to circumstance over the course of a career,Day and Hadfield (1996) noted that the teachers intheir research held at least three selves simulta-neously within their work context—the actual(how current contexts shaped their work prac-tices), the ideal (what they felt it meant to be ateacher) and the transitional (which mediatedbetween possibilities of the actual and the ideal).In her research on teachers’ work, McClure (1993)noted that identity is often, ‘less stable, less

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convergent and less coherent than is often impliedin the research literature’ (MacLure, 1993, p. 320).More recently, research with nurses and teachersrevealed that they mobilised, ‘a complex ofoccasional identities in response to shifting con-texts’ (Stronach, Corbin, McNamara, Stark, &Warne, 2002, p 117), thus appearing to suggest aninherent lack of stability of professional identityduring times of change. For those concerned withraising standards in schools, sustaining teachers’effectiveness throughout their careers must be akey consideration. Understanding teacher commit-ment, so much a part of teacher effectiveness andidentity, is therefore, crucial. This is especially thecase if the quality of the education provided tostudents is to be maintained or improved in theface of the increasing pressures and demands froma variety of sources noted above. Teachers must beassisted in sustaining their enthusiasm for, andcommitment to their work (Boy & Pine, 1987;Day, 2000; Louis, 1998).

Table 1

Types of participants Australia England

Primary teachers 6 4

Secondary teachers 6 3

Headteachers 0 1

LEA advisers 0 2

3. An empirical investigation into teacher

commitment

In research terms, it is widely accepted thatteachers aged 45 plus (in the majority in bothAustralian and English schools) find continuingcommitment to classroom teaching problematicpartly for reasons of time, energy and health, andbecause they have become emotionally exhaustedor ‘disenchanted’ (Raudenbush, Rowan, &Cheong, 1992; Vandenberghe & Huberman,1999). Life cycle and career factors are also knownto play an increasingly important role in the livesof teachers of this age and beyond (Fessler, 1995;Huberman, 1995; Ball & Goodson, 1985). Whilstresearch into teachers lives and careers hasidentified the possibilities for the last 10–15 yearsfor the plateauing of development, growingfrustration because of lack of promotion, loss ofself-confidence and disenchantment among someteachers as a result of an increasingly alienatingenvironment, it has also shown that teachers who,for example, regularly change roles, work in asupportive culture and are reflective and are ableto participate in significant decision-making in

school, maintain their motivation and satisfactionin the essential core of their work—classroomteaching (Huberman, 1993a, b; Helsby & McCul-loch, 1996).In the light of these complex personal and

environmental factors, we were conscious that inany study of teacher commitment it was importantnot to identify only one ‘‘voice’’—that associatedwith demoralisation and fatigue resulting from amultitude of internal and external pressures.Rather, we wanted to see whether there were alsovoices of experienced teachers which held in themhope and enthusiasm for who they were and whatthey were doing.

3.1. Research design

The data on which this article is based aredrawn from a small-scale, exploratory study ofAustralian and English teachers’ realities ofsustaining commitment within the teaching profes-sion. The total sample of 20 experienced teachers,aged between 45 and 55, were selected on anopportunistic basis and drawn from groups who,at the time, were engaged in various forms ofprofessional development activity (such as post-graduate study) at the authors’ respective institu-tions.Of the sample based in Australia, six were

primary school teachers and six were secondaryschool teachers. The sample based in Englandcomprised four primary teachers and three sec-ondary teachers. Furthermore, this latter part ofthe sample was complemented by data collectedfrom a primary school headteacher and two LocalEducation Authority (LEA) advisers in order togain additional perspectives on the sustainabilityof commitment in English schools. Table 1illustrates the balance of the overall sample.

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Due to the nature of the investigation, allteachers involved in the study had between 25and 35 years of experience. Both the Australianand the English teachers also represented a rangeof school contexts, including inner city, suburbanand rural settings.The data sources from this study were in-depth

interviews, field notes and collection of relevantdocumentation. The interviews were based on anumber of specific questions, but allowed forfurther exploration according to participants’responses and the unique characteristics of eachindividual, thus permitting some flexibility. Thespecific questions pursued were:

�
How do teachers themselves characterise thosewho are committed and those not so committed?
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What has shaped teachers’ levels of commitmentand what sustains/diminishes this?
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How do teachers characterise the changes intheir levels of commitment across time?
The interviews were carried out, focusing on thebroad theme of their experiences as teachers,and more specifically on the role of commitmentduring their career. It is not our intention inthis study to draw direct cause and effectrelations between policy imperatives, teachers’lives, organisational culture and commitmentbut rather to illuminate relationships betweenthese through what was said in answer to ourquestions.Each interview was digitally recorded (with

participants’ permission) and electronically storedfor subsequent transcription and archiving. Ana-lysis and interpretation of all the data formed anongoing part of the data-gathering process. Aninitial form of analysis took place immediatelyafter the interview, which resulted in a preliminaryunderstanding of each teacher’s realities of com-mitment during their career. Further analyticalcodes, using the techniques described by Strauss(1987), were formed after a content analysis of theinterviews. Emerging themes and patterns in thedata were used to create a larger dataset compris-ing information from teachers from the twocountries, working in different types of schools,with pupils of different age groups. This diverse

dataset was subsequently interrogated in order toincrease validity of claims.Although the interviews in the Australian and

English contexts were carried out separately, anidentical analytical process was undertaken in eachcase. For example, in order to identify the variousways in which commitment was characterised bythe teachers, a statement that characterised theposition the teacher was advocating was devel-oped. In general, these statements were structuredusing the same phrases of the teachers in order toground the meanings that were being derived. Thepurpose of this approach was not to reducefindings to a simple set of statements but toidentify the diversity of meanings reported. The-oretical positions relating to teachers’ commitmentwere then derived through an examination of thediversity and commonality in these statements. Atthis stage in the process, the analysis wastriangulated by attaining the reactions and ideasfrom a random selection of participants, whosefeedback was incorporated into further interpreta-tion.The purpose of the study is to examine the

perceptions of two groups of teachers in a similarphase of their career, but who are working withinsystems experiencing different kinds of educational(and other) reforms. The findings are reportedunder three broad analytical themes in order tohighlight contrasts in the experiences of partici-pants, and which aim to clarify and explore:

�
characterising commitment; � changes across time; � factors which sustain and diminish commit-ment.
4. The findings

4.1. Characterising commitment

When Australian teachers were asked to discusshow they conceived commitment to teaching, theyinitially began discussing commitment in terms ofbehaviour. For example, one teacher, in comment-ing about teachers whom she regarded as com-mitted remarked:

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I think it is the way they interact with children.The way they talk and listeny

Another, in referring to teachers who lackedcommitment, pointed to:

yteachers who don’t turn up at nine o’clockand turn off at three o’clock y

However, as each of the interviews proceeded,the comments soon moved to discussions of valuepositions that commitment implied. As oneteacher reported:

ycommitment to teaching comes from caringabout the children and caring about thephilosophy of education- what education reallymeans.

Thus, the teachers appeared to refer to commit-ment to teaching as though it was made up of twocomponents: an ideological/values and a practicecomponent. These two were perceived as beingintimately linked. The commitment to practice isdrawn from the commitment to an ideologicalposition:

I don’t know how you could do the job if youdidn’t feel that depth of commitment tochildren, to education, to whatever motivatesyouy

Each of the teachers discussed various practicesto which they were committed but, in doing so,referred to the central set of beliefs that gavemeaning to those practices. It was as if they werearguing that their sense of worth and identity asteachers was allied to this ideological componentof commitment:

ycommitment is part of you. This is my work,my responsibility and I get a lot of enjoymentfrom this.

Another pointed out that:

yyou’ve got the lives of children in your handsand you want to make a difference to them, andgood teachers do make a difference.

As a corollary to this, it might be argued thatthe extent to which particular practices becomepart of a repertoire of practice for any teacher

depends on whether the practices can be reconciledwith the espoused ideological position to which theteacher is committed (Argyris and Schon, 1974).This has obvious implications for teacher devel-opment and strategies by which change is intro-duced into public education settings.Likewise, all of the teachers in the English

context were able to formulate clear views of whatit means to be committed to teaching. Forexample, one teacher claimed that:

I give my whole heart to my workyI lovechallengeyand I feel satisfied with having putmy all into ityI’ve been in teaching 27 yearsand up to this point I’ve never considered anyother work, because I’m committed to helpingevery individual child achieve their potentialy

Whilst not all respondents echoed the intensivededication of this teacher, all indicated that thecentral or core aspects of commitment wereassociated with the students they taught:

It’s based on my desire to enable all children toreach their potentialy it comes from theheartyand I want to be able to be at my bestboth technicallyy (and) to bring a reflectiveapproach. I don’t’ believe in teaching that youcan just be a technician.

An LEA Adviser expressed a more complexview of her commitment:

At the moment there are various aspects of mywork that I don’t feel committed to at all, thereare others that I do. I am committed tosupporting schools in a way that helps themto improve. But I don’t feel committed to someof the tasks I’m asked to do, involvingmonitoring and paper chasing to fulfil bureau-cratic exercises that don’t make differencey sothere’s a real tension.

One teacher defined commitment as valuesbased:

a value, a virtue. It is the combination of havinga sense of responsibility, loyalty and hardworkyI try to give my best performance,though I’m aware that I have good and baddays.

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Another elaborated the value position as itrelated to professional learning:

I think there’s almost a ‘sliding scale’ ofcommitment. There are people who are pre-pared to invest heart and soul when you knowyou might not get much of a personal return.Children can be really rewarding but alsofrustrating if you invest a lot of yourselfyI’vegot a commitment above and beyond deliveringa curriculum, to developing children as peo-pley but also a commitment to developingmyself as a professional, to widening myknowledge so that I can be really effective inwhat I doy

This echoes Evan’s (1998) findings that:

Teachers do not all share the same levels ofcommitment to their job. For some, it is a majorpart of their lives;y and they afford it extensiveconsideration and high priority. Others mayperceive it differently. To them, teaching is justa jobyThey may carry out their dutiesconscientiously and they may enjoy the work,but it is not their centre of gravityy(p. 103).

Another important aspect of commitment evi-denced in the teachers’ discussions was that, aswith the Australian teachers, it was also ideologi-cal in nature:

an ideological approach to my teaching which isto do with belief in the dignity of the individualand the integrity of the comprehensive (school)idealy

A further understanding of commitment toteaching was gleaned when the English teachersabout were asked to describe someone who wasnot committed. They were:

just not very good at what they’re doingyalack of ‘spark’, that extra quality that’sintangibleysloppy preparation, sloppiness intheir interactions with students, poor time-keepingvysomeone who has lost that lust forlifeychildren pick up on it and staff doy

People who are not committed tend to go in(the classroom) just before the bell in themorning, do their job, don’t interact socially

or emotionally with the childrenyTeachingcan’t be just a jobyyou’ve got to have apassion for it as welly

There’s a light on but nobody at home.

The interviews with both sets of teachers suggestthat although they conceived of commitment toteaching in different terms there were underlyingcentral ideas. Amongst these were enthusiasm,belief in an ideal (vision), hard work, a sense ofsocial justice, an awareness of the need to attend totheir own continuing development, and a recogni-tion of priorities.

4.2. Changes across time

In general, the Australian teachers asserted thatthey remained committed to their beliefs through-out their professional life. Although their levels ofengagement with particular practices were mod-ified through various life events and activities,their commitment to the ideological position didnot diminish. Indeed, for many teachers, levels ofcommitment increased across time. Such ideologi-cal components of commitment were seen to becentral to their professional practice and wholelife:

Commitment is part of you. If you believe thata job is worth doing you will be committed.This is my work.

There was a recognition, however, that for someteachers commitment might vary over time:

Most teachers come into teaching because theyhave a commitment. But we all have a certainlevel and some of us plateau earlier or later thanothersypeople who are committed don’t everstop wanting to learnyso I’d characterisesomeone who is not committed as beingstuckynot moving ony

For these teachers, able to reflect over manyyears of work, this was a key issue. Had thepassing of time and the changing environmentresulted in a diminished commitment and jobsatisfaction or were these teachers as enthusiasticto make a difference in the lives of teachers as theyhad always been? In all of the English cases, as

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with the Australians, it was clear that therespondents had maintained their commitmentbut that the understanding of the job, changesover which they had no control, and changes intheir own life had caused them to modify theirapproach to their work, to ‘channel’ their commit-ment in different ways. One head teacher sufferedfrom ill health but was determined to ‘keepfighting’ for the things she believed in:

In the last couple of years (of headship of aprimary school)ythere has been a little bit of illhealthyMy attitude to the work has changedbecause of a growing understanding of things Ihold dear, believe in and valueyand because ofthat there are areas now that I don’t likeyInow seem to spend a good deal of time fightingfor the things I believe in and shall continue todo thaty

Although this seemed to confirm Huberman’s(1993) findings that in the ‘final phase’ of teachingmany teachers find satisfaction principally in theclassroom, it had been complicated by the effectsof changes outside the classroom:

I find that increasingly difficultyyou can starta lesson and within 10minutes you can have atleast 6 interruptions. People come in and outand it’s not fair on the kidsyand I feel that myquality of teaching has deterioratedyand that’snot because I don’t prepare my lessons, it’sbecause of all the forces that come in fromoutsidey

Almost all talked of a tension between theircommitment to long-held core values and identi-ties and changes in the environment in which theyworked. However, they appeared to have beenable to hold on to their commitment—‘I’ve alwaysmaintained my belief at the same level because it’smy passion’. Whilst personal circumstances hadaffected the balance of work and personal life (e.g.having a family), their beliefs had been sustained.Some talked about the origins of commitment asbeing vocational (‘I always wanted to be ateacher’), whilst others talked of the ‘supportiveenvironments’ in which they had worked:

yhad a really good headteacher, worked withsome exceptionally good teachers who haveremained lifelong friendsy

All spoke of the ways in which their, ‘growingunderstanding of things I hold dear, believe in andvalue’, had caused them to, ‘take a more long-itudinal approach’ to their teaching and the widerimplications of what they did in terms of manage-ment structures and external forces:

I think about school wide issues a lot moreyIlike to get involved in meetingsythe overallrunning of the school and where our depart-ment fits into thaty

Experience seemed to have played a key role intheir continuing growth and ability to continue towant to effect change and be an effective teacher:

ythe more experience you have and the peopleyou come into contact with, things that youhear about, read about, have meant that I havemore of a bank of knowledge and under-standing to be committed and effect improve-ment than I did haveybut I’ve always wantedto do this job and do it welly

4.3. Factors which sustain and diminish

commitment

Much has been written about the relationshipbetween effective teaching and school culture. It isnow the ‘received wisdom’, for example, thatcollaborative cultures enhance teacher participa-tion and that they are likely to lead to and sustainteacher commitment (Rosenholtz, 1989). For bothEnglish and Australian teachers, however, sustain-ing effective teaching was a far more complex mixof internal and external factors. Two of theEnglish teachers pointed to the supportive envir-onment in which they worked,

I work in a good management team. Theyacknowledge my level of commitmentytheyunderstand that I work hardythey support meby giving me time and space to attendcoursesyI don’t think many managementteams have thought carefully about how com-

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Table 2

Factors which sustain or diminish commitment

Type of factors Number of such

factors that sustain

commitment

Number of such

factors that

diminish

commitment

Personal 18 12

School context 24 16

System context 6 34

Professional 18 6


mitted professionals can sustain their work rateover a great length of time.

Eight others, however, raised issues about thelevel of appreciation which they received whichclearly pose a challenge to those whose sense ofcommitment and self-efficacy might be less secure:

My commitment is not recognised, acknowl-edged in many waysyI’m not bitteryit’s justbasic people management skills that are lacking.

I don’t know how far they value my commit-ment. I don’t feel undervalued in that respec-ty(but)ywe need to get more involved in thewider educational debate.

ynobody really questions it. They know thatwhat is expected is being done, achievedy

I suspect they have a different definition ofcommitment than I doythat they would definemy role as somebody who has got to help theschool to achieve its academic targetsy

Another colleague was more specific:

Judgements are placed upon you as to how wellthe children perform in their SATs (nationaltests) It feels like there’s a whole staircase ofpeople looking down on youythat are going tomake these judgements on what you do, and theinitiatives they’ve invested money inythere’s areal climate of academic driven syllabus inprimary schools.

These comments suggest that institutional sup-port for the person in the professional is anessential contributory factor to sustaining commit-ment. Yet central to the ability of both English andAustralian teachers to continue to adapt, to moveon in changing circumstances, had been theirawareness of and adherence to particular corevalues and identities which focused upon, ‘makinga positive difference’ in the learning lives of thosewith whom they worked; and they associated thiswith the enduring capacity to reflect:

I like to think that I am both committed andreflectiveythat they have a concomitant rela-tionshipy

and

Good teachers are all the time looking at whatthey do, reflecting on what they doylooking atweaknesses and recognising strengthsyI havecolleagues whoydon’t reflect, just carry onbeing mechanistic in what they do. Reflectivepeople have a commitment to what they doy

In a way, these respondents’ insistence oncontinuing to be learners had enabled them tomaintain a sense of self, self esteem, and acontinuing commitment to do the job as well aspossible in all circumstances:

I don’t think commitment is just doing the job.I see it as a much more personal, emotionalentanglement. To me, reflectivity is commit-ment and commitment is reflectivityy

Commitment was moderated, therefore,through a range of factors—some of which weresustaining and some diminishing. In other words,teachers were less likely to engage in particularactivities or behave in particular ways at one pointin time depending on various work and lifecontextual factors. For example, school contexts,relationships with colleagues and system reformsand events such as births, deaths, divorce andillness seemed to be the major work and life factorsthat challenged the sustaining of commitment(Sikes, Measor, & Woods, 1985; Rosenholtz,1989; Huberman, 1993a, b).Table 2 indicates the different types of factors

that sustained and diminished the commitment ofboth sets of teachers in terms of the frequency withwhich they were mentioned in the interviews:Personal and school context factors are most

significant in sustaining the teachers’ levels ofcommitment to teaching. Examples of these were:

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�
having friends of similar professional interestsand needs;
�
a stable emotional environment at home; � social life outside of education; � leadership and school culture; � self efficacy, feeling you are doing a good joband can make a difference.
Examples of school context factors that sus-tained commitment included:

�
sharing with and supporting peers; � positive feedback from colleagues; � working with parents to bring about change; � shared educational values in the school context; � children in class and dynamic work environ-ments.
Professional factors included ideas such as,‘‘better professional development opportunities’’,and, ‘‘the introduction of exciting innovations intoteaching e.g. technology’’.Examples of system context factors that sus-

tained commitment included ‘‘being able tonegotiate part–time- and full-time work’’ and‘‘new systemic initiatives that fit in with my ownphilosophy’’.As for factors that diminish teacher levels of

commitment, Table 2 clearly indicates that systemcontext factors were the most significant. Suchfactors included:

�
time-related imposed innovation and the steeplearning curves involved;
�
department initiatives that increase bureaucratictasks;
�
cutting down on resources/lack of funding; � reduction of classroom autonomy and sense ofagency;
�
decisions being made about your students inforums outside of your control.
Personal factors that appeared to diminishcommitment to teaching were those that wereassociated with life events or phases—for example,marriage breakdowns, deaths, family illness, re-duction in energy levels through declining healthor energy levels/imbalance in work-life activities.

5. Discussion: The practice of commitment

This research confirms the complexity of tea-chers’ lives and work and the centrality ofcommitment in sustaining quality. The personaland professional values and beliefs of almost allthe respondents appeared to shape their construc-tions of commitment to teaching. It was clear alsofrom the Australian and English respondents thatthe practice of ‘commitment’ is made up of acombination of factors and that the most im-portant of these are:

(i).
A clear enduring set of values and ideologieswhich inform practice regardless of socialcontext.
(ii).
A clear sense of standards: the active rejec-tion of a minimalist approach to teaching (tojust doing the job).
(iii).
A continuing willingness to reflect uponexperience and the context in which practiceoccurs and to be adaptable.
(iv).
Intellectual and emotional engagement.
5.1. Concerning commitment and values

The current literature identifies components ofteacher commitment that are often part of ateacher’s professional practice context—such ascommitment to students, school priorities, subjector discipline knowledge. The findings from bothAustralia and England suggest that commitmentto teaching goes beyond, and is deeper than, these.It involves a cluster of values, which, throughoutthe professional career, regardless of circumstance,are drivers of commitment. Because teachers referto these as a core and stable element of theirprofessional identity, it is most significant ininfluencing practice. Thus, commitment in theseterms is generally expressed as a set of personaland professional values that extend well beyondthe traditional ideas of caring and dedicationsuggested by Nias (1981). Their care about theirstudents represented an expression of their perso-nal beliefs and emotional commitment which wentbeyond the contractual obligation of caring for

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(Fletcher-Campbell, 1995). Such caring demandspersonal as well as professional investment in theworkplace as teachers take on the other’s reality aspossibility, reaching out to establish genuine,warm relationships which replace control (Nod-dings, 1992).

5.2. Concerning work and high standards

Central to issues of commitment (both theideological/value and practice components) andidentity is the concept of professional standards.Many teachers noted this link and as one (English)teacher noted:

My practice comes out of my commitment, notthe other way around. Because I’m committed,I take my role very seriouslyy

The teachers associated commitment with con-sistently working hard and setting high standards.However, they were also realistic about the effectsof stress that flowed from this and knew what todo about it. As one teacher noted:

I know that I have a bad day when I’mexhausted and not giving my best. I know thatI need to take a bit of space so I can pull backthat level of commitment

And another, similarly, claimed:

I have very high standards of myself and thatcan inevitably lead to frustration when thepressure on your time makes you do things in aless reasoned and thought out wayy andsometimes you’re not given the reflective spacein which to think about issues more dee-plyybut you’ve got to move on, you can’t beracked with guilt and self loathing because mylevel of commitment would suggest that Ialways work with care and sensitivity andintegrity and honestyyand that’s the best Ican doy

Thus, commitment for these teachers was morethan just an exercise in the head—they wanted toshow how their ideas could be realised in practice.In this sense, they were realistic as to what couldbe achieved and knew the boundaries that framedpossibilities.

5.3. Concerning a willingness to reflect

The teachers in Australia and England linkedcommitment with professional learning. Termssuch as moving on and improving practice wereused by the teachers to signal that being com-mitted to teaching meant ongoing involvement inlearning. Central to professional learning was theprocess of reflection, which focused on doingbetter for the children for whom they wereresponsible. Thus, when the teachers used theword ‘‘care’’ to refer to their relationshipwith their students, they were not justreferring to an emotional relationship, but to anintellectual activity, which resulted in enhancedlearning opportunities for their students. The linksbetween care, improved practice and reflection arecentral to the understanding of conceptions ofcommitment expressed by the teachers in thisstudy.Teachers in both Australia and England used

phrases such as ‘‘commitment is part of you’’ tosignal its relationship with their whole identity.The implications for those wishing to introduceand sustain systematic change are clear. Indivi-duals’ commitment to such change is essential.Change requires working closely with teachers andtheir individual identities because unless these areaddressed it is unlikely to succeed. Tensions thatare always associated with change need to bemanaged by teachers and others, and this suggestsrelationships based upon dialogue, mutual trustand respect. Of particular significance was the roleof colleagues and others close to the teacher insustaining engagement, while larger scale factorsassociated with the system and district tended todiminish such engagement.

5.4. Concerning intellectual and emotional

engagement

When teachers are able to see the relationshipbetween their values and the strategic directions oftheir school, they are more likely to become highlyengaged with those directions—both emotionallyand intellectually. This is captured in the study byteachers who reported giving their ‘‘whole heart’’to their work and feelings of ‘‘depth’’ of commit-

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ment to what they do. For many of these teachersthere was no mind/body or work/life dichotomywhen they discussed their commitment.

6. Conclusion

The research reported here suggests that thechallenge for policy-makers and school leadersconcerned with issues of recruitment, retentionand the sustaining of high-quality teachers andteaching, is to create contexts in which teacherscan make connections between the priorities of theschool and their individual personal, professionaland collective identity and commitment. Theprocesses by which policy-makers and schoolleaders can forge these connections are proble-matic because core values and identities are oftenformed at an early life stage (Lortie, 1975;Rokeach, 1968), are structured as networks ofassumptions (Kitchener, 1986), act as filters to newideas and knowledge (Posner, Strike, Hewson, &Gertzog, 1982; Schommer, 1990), and are extre-mely difficult to modify or change (Lewis, 1990;Lortie, 1975; Wilson, 1990). Whilst teachers maywell mobilise ‘occasional identities’ in response tonew challenges and changing circumstances, thisresearch indicates that nested within these lie setsof core values-based identities which relate tostrongly held purposes and principles of care andcommitment to pupils’ learning and achievement,and which transcend transitory agendas of im-posed change. In the management and implemen-tation of change and reform agendas bygovernments, there is no evidence that these coreidentities are acknowledged or valued. Yet theirneglect at pre-service and in-service levels, para-doxically, is likely to result for many in a decline inthe very qualities which are essential to thecomplex process of sustaining the commitmentnecessary to high-quality teaching over a careerthrough times of challenge and change.

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Reform, standards and teacher identity: Challenges of sustaining commitment

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